BRONX, N.Y. — When the Xavier HS offense is executing the school’s traditional single-wing, misdirection scheme it can be trouble for opposing defenses.

Behind the strength of quarterback Peter Heaney’s 216 rushing yards, the Knights offense controlled the line of scrimmage and thus controlled the game and the result was a 28-7 triumph over St. Joseph by-the-Sea to capture the CHSFL AA-1 title Saturday at Fordham University’s Moglia Stadium.

The Vikings, the 2024 champions (8-7 win over Island rival St. Peter’s) and division winners this year were denied their bid of a repeat.

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CHSFL AA-1 Championship: Xavier vs. St. Joseph by-the-Sea

“I thought we were prepared from a game-plan standpoint, but today they were the better team, so give them credit,” said Sea head coach Tressor Baptiste. “We knew what they were going to do, but they executed and we didn’t.”

“Overall I am happy with the season we had to get back to the championship and I am also happy with the direction of the program,” added Baptiste. “We’re headed in the right direction and these are the steps and the building blocks to greatness.”

The story of the contest, however, begins and ends with Heaney.

The 6-foot senior ran the Knights offense with precision from start to finish and his downhill running style in between the tackles and outside the numbers was too much for Sea to handle.

After the Vikings went three-and-out on the game’s opening possession, Xavier needed just five plays to cover 70 yards to produce the game’s first points.

Heaney rambled for 25 yards on the series’ first three plays, and one play later, senior tailback Elijah Stewart rambled around the right side 43 yards to pay dirt. Theo Sheridan-Vitale booted the first of four PAT kicks to make it 7-0.

Sea would then piece together a 13-play, 60-yard drive but the jaunt stalled with three consecutive incompletions just outside the red zone as the Vikings turned the ball over on downs.

The Sea defense stood tall despite a pair of neutral zone infractions to force an Xavier punt on the next possession and the Huguenot school took over on their own 17.

But, disaster struck quickly as a mishandled jet sweep handoff led to a fumble and the Knights took possession at the Viking 18.

Two plays later, it was Stewart again hitting paydirt from 24 yards out and the Knights held a 14-0 lead.

Sea’s offense finally got untracked late in the second to make it a 14-7 game heading into the lockers.

Junior signal-caller Peter Tronolone engineered a five-play, 65-yard drive the culminated with running back Joey Moran barreling in from four yards out at the 1:44 mark of the second. On the drive Tronolone completed four straight passes to get Sea down to the 4.

He hit Matt Fuentes over the middle for 10 and Christian Yue in the left flat for six, before threading the needle on back-to-back passes down the right sideline to Arthur McCarthy (15 yards) and Yue (33).

While the drive did give Baptiste’s squad momentum, the second-half belonged to Heaney and the Knight’s stingy defense.

The hard-running senior broke off TD runs of 47 and 76 yards after the intermission and the Knight’s defense stiffened to bottle up the Viking attack and bring the title back home to downtown Manhattan for second-year head coach Dom DeFalco.

“This is such a great group of kids and it is probably one of the most talented groups we’ve had here in a while so I am so proud of them and happy for the school,” exclaimed DeFalco. “They have put the work in since last January; they have great attitudes and they deserve this.”

While the team’s unconventional offense may not look pretty at times, it ran like a well-oiled machine down the stretch as the Knight’s reeled off six consecutive wins, while scoring 28 or more points in five of the those wins.

“We get a certain type of player here at Xavier,” explained DeFalco. “They are invested in the school and want to make the committment and accept the challenge to play here. We have a nationally ranked rugby team — and a lot of the kids play football — they’re athletes and while they’re not huge guy’s our best asset is running the ball and playing defense and these kids buy in.”

“Our defense has been one of the best statistically that we have ever had here and when we run the ball the way we did today it’s hard to stop us,” added DeFalco, an Annadale resident and 2010 Xavier alum.

Whether it was as a decoy, or the man carrying the ball, Heaney had too much in the tank for the Viking defense that had been an solid unit all year long.

“We know it’s tough to defend our offense and we knew we were the best team in the league this year; we just went out and proved that today,” said Heaney, who was named the offensive player of the game. We felt in control the whole game and when we started running downhill. We have 4-5 options to run it on our offense and it’s hard to defend.”

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NOTES: Sea defensive back Matt Fuentes led the team with nine tackles, while Sal Leto had seven, including a TFL … Anthony Ferrari and Dom D’Orazio each had five stops, while John Kournidakis, Santino Paradiso, Chris Dunne and Moran registered three apiece … In addition to booting the PAT, Nico Vitagliano had four punts for a 52-yard average … Xavier had an 11-6 advantage in first downs.

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